This article is part of the supplement: Coartem®: reviewing the impact on the malaria landscape .

Review

The clinical efficacy of artemether/lumefantrine (Coartem^®)

Michael Makanga^1* and Srivicha Krudsood^2*

¹  European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Francie van Zijl Drive, Parow, P.O. Box 19070, Tygerberg 7505, Cape Town, South Africa

²  WHO CC for Clinical Management of Malaria, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Rajavithee Road, Rajathewee, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Malaria Journal 2009, 8(Suppl 1):S5doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-S1-S5

Published:	12 October 2009

Abstract

Current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria recommend the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). Artemether/lumefantrine is an ACT prequalified by the WHO for efficacy, safety and quality, approved by Swissmedic in December 2008 and recently approved by the USA FDA. Coartem^® is a fixed-dose combination of artemether and lumefantrine. Its two components have different modes of action that provide synergistic anti-malarial activity. It is indicated for the treatment of infants, children and adults with acute, uncomplicated infection due to Plasmodium falciparum or mixed infections including P. falciparum. A formulation with improved palatability has been developed especially for children (Coartem^® Dispersible), which rapidly disperses in a small amount of water for ease of administration.

The efficacy of the six-dose regimen of artemether/lumefantrine has been confirmed in many different patient populations around the world, consistently achieving 28-day PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-corrected cure rates of >95% in the evaluable population, rapidly clearing parasitaemia and fever, and demonstrating a significant gametocidal effect, even in areas of widespread parasite resistance to other antimalarials.